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That's the expression used in St Louis. The Muny Opera is in its 90th season. Last night SR went there for the first time. I've loved it forever, remember going there as a kid with my family.

It's wonderful entertainment---and the prices range from $64 a ticket to free. You can't beat free. It has a capacity of 12,000 seats.

Last night there was a retrospective of the last 90 years. I was in heaven, well, will confess that I was pretty bored with "Tea for Two" and some of the older shows. But it was a beautiful night and the music of Oscar and Hammerstein, Cole Porter and newer music such as Les Mis was delightful. (I think SR was ready to fall off the seat during parts of the first act.) :D

Seven nights a week the huge lights in St. Louis' Forest Park flash on, flooding the park with a blinding glare—the signal to the audience that the show is over. One night next week when the lights blaze, about 12,000 Municipal Opera fans will rise to 'their feet and roar out Auld Lang Syne with the cast, as they have regularly at the close of St. Louis' summer operetta seasons since 1919. As they make their way out of their leafy open-air theater, St. Louisans can be comfortably proud of their Municipal Opera, which is neither municipally owned nor opera. Philadelphia's summer concerts in Robin Hood Dell had folded in midseason, and Manhattan's popular Lewisohn Stadium concerts had limped through to an $84,000 deficit. But the St. Louis company has taken in the most money ($650,000) of any season in its history, and played to its biggest one-night audience (11,935 f°r a performance of Rio Rita) during its 12˝-week season.

The "Muny" has gone in the hole only twice in its history—once 30 years ago, when a flash flood washed away half the scenery and instruments on opening night, and once during the depression. Both times the backers were paid back within two years. One big reason is that their summer opera has become a family habit for St. Louisans—from grandma to the kids. Another reason—and perhaps a bigger one—is the quality of its performances. Even a foreign critic from Dallas recently admitted that St. Louis' Municipal Opera is to summer operetta companies "what the Metropolitan is to grand opera." Unlike the Met, however, the Muny has no deficit.
It offers a first-rate production of light opera and musical comedy—with first-rate casts. Some summer-opera alumni: Irene Dunne, Gary Grant (he was then Archie Leach), Allan Jones, Red Skelton, Cass Daley, Virginia Mayo. The orchestra is largely recruited from the St. Louis Symphony, and the producers, directors and designers are professionals from Broadway and Hollywood.

‎" To the world you are just one more person, but to a rescued pet, you are the world.""A Nation of Sheep Breeds a Government of Wolves!"

That's the expression used in St Louis. The Muny Opera is in its 90th season. Last night SR went there for the first time. I've loved it forever, remember going there as a kid with my family.

It's wonderful entertainment---and the prices range from $64 a ticket to free. You can't beat free. It has a capacity of 12,000 seats.

Last night there was a retrospective of the last 90 years. I was in heaven, well, will confess that I was pretty bored with "Tea for Two" and some of the older shows. But it was a beautiful night and the music of Oscar and Hammerstein, Cole Porter and newer music such as Les Mis was delightful. (I think SR was ready to fall off the seat during parts of the first act.) :D

:D:D He's being dragged kicking and screaming. Oh nooooo! A couple of weeks ago we were at the Mo Botanical Garden and saw the large exhibit of sculptures, Nikki, that are scattered throughout the garden and in the Climatron. Maybe he'll post some of the pics.

‎" To the world you are just one more person, but to a rescued pet, you are the world.""A Nation of Sheep Breeds a Government of Wolves!"

:D:D He's being dragged kicking and screaming. Oh nooooo! A couple of weeks ago we were at the Mo Botanical Garden and saw the large exhibit of sculptures, Nikki, that are scattered throughout the garden and in the Climatron. Maybe he'll post some of the pics.

Detroit has an amazing Opera house, and gets good private funding, so they can have some pretty good performances. Andrea Bocelli made his debut in an opera in Detroit a few years ago (he was a singer, but had never done an opera because of his blindness). Also, the opera Margeret Garner (story by Toni Morrison, a rehashing of the plot of her novel Beloved) debuted there a couple of years ago. Denice Graves has also performed in productions at the Michigan Opera Theater.

I saw my favorite opera there about 10 years ago-The Barber Of Seville. I still wish they would do a production of D'Vorak's Russalka, but not many american opera singers can sing in czeck. Renee Fleming can, they should be able to afford to lure her, if they could get those other acts.

The opera house was restored in the 90s, along with the Detroit Symphony Hall. Both had been previously performing in newer venues, and Max Fisher (someone I had to defend on DU when he died) donated the money to rebuild symphony hall. The Opera society raised a bunch of money on their own to restore their building.

I used to attend the symphony regularly, when Neeme Jarvi was the conducter. He was amazing to watch in action, and elicited the best performances from the group.